Coworking Revenues Beyond the Desk

Sponsorship, event tickets, food & beverage and 3rd party affiliate schemes are among the most utilized strategies for generating top-up coworking revenues. Each merit a separate post so for now, we’re focusing on the underutilized low hanging fruit….

Virtual Revenues

Many operators completely underestimate the value of virtual revenues. It might come as a surprise that operators could be adding between 20% and 30% more revenues from this source without breaking a sweat. In this podcast from Everything Coworking, Keith Warner, managing partner of Pacific Workplaces says that they can pay their rent exclusively from virtual revenues ! That’s a BIG chunk of cash people.

Get going on your virtual strategy. You already have a captive audience from your existing members and email harvest list, plus if you set it up right the required infrastructure is minimal. There are some excellent cloud based packages out there. Have a look at Sphere Mail and CloudVO for example.

Bandwidth Packages

When it comes to bandwidth, you think one size fits all? Think again. Zelmar ran a trial recently and discovered a 25% uptake on enhanced broadband packages offered to new members.

Over the test period, they offered 20 new members incremental bandwidth options for a premium at sign up stage :-

Bandwidth Basic (8 GB /month) – Included in membership fee.

Bandwidth Enhanced (20 GB /month) – An additional €20 /month

Bandwidth Max (60 GB /month)- An additional €35 /month

And the uptake:-

Bandwidth Basic: 14 members choose not to upgrade.

Bandwidth Enhanced: 4 members went with this

Bandwidth Max: 2 members went with this.

To be able to offer these options you’ll need some shared workspace tech like Medusa (UK) or Wun Systems (US). For most platforms, the install costs are usually low as they are subscription based and they are built with non-technical staff in mind.

Meeting Room Bundles

If you charge for meeting room use then you should be generating a minimum of twice the revenue you would if the room were sold as a private office. Bundles are best sold at move-in stage when you have the full attention of the new member. Most members won’t use the full compliment so go ahead and discount aggressively. Try it, analyse the feedback then tweak and re-tweak until it’s right for your community.

Play around with selling meeting room credits instead of hours. It provides better flexibility. One of the worlds largest coworking operators uses credits to leverage surge charging (like Uber) which allows them to charge more during busy periods.

Meeting room revenue is largely untapped so it’s time to start treating it like the science that it is. For a closer look, check out this webinar from CloudVO on optimizing your meeting room business.

Tip: It you haven’t got live chat on your coworking website then you’re missing out. Check out this and other marketing tips here